A good friend started taking Science of Mind classes. She wanted to make some changes, including a happy new marriage. After a few classes, she went shopping and purchased a beautiful wedding gown. She wasn’t dating anyone, but she prayed daily and thanked God for her great marriage daily. She knew it was a “done deal”. Soon after her dress purchase, she met her perfect right husband. They’ve lived happily ever after (more than twenty years and counting) .

One of the most unusual things about affirmative prayer is that we don’t wish, dream or beg, we know. Our prayers close when we give thanks to God for doing the work. We know it works.

That’s what makes our prayer different. We never plead, we simply claim our Divine Inheritance. We speak our word, and give our claim to God, knowing that God does the work.

We pray this way because we know that we are living in God and that our minds are connected to God’s mind. God says yes to any life-affirming goal that we can imagine, believe and accept.

Our job is to imagine, believe and accept our goal both with our minds and our emotions. We realize it is already done in the mind of God. At that point, God, which is Infinite Love, acting through Spiritual Law, must bring it into form or being. It comes into what we sometimes call the “real” world.

In our beginning Science of Mind classes, we learn that God is always saying yes to our prevailing belief system. So prayer is a message to God, and God is Infinite Power, Infinite Possibility and Infinite Love. What’s more, Infinite Mind must say yes when we have thoroughly imagined, believed and accepted it. That’s how the Creative Principle works. It’s the Law!

My friend bought her dress because she believed and she got what she expected. Next time you do a prayer, ask yourself if you really believe it. If not, spend a few more minutes. Even if it takes more than one prayer, aim for total trust. Keep doing the prayer work until you see results. Sometimes there is more to be known and released before you get to the point of total belief.

About twenty years ago, another friend called me for prayer to find a new job in the big city. She’d been praying and nothing had worked so she called me. I asked her if her bags were packed. Later, when she became a Religious Minister minister, it became her favorite story and talk. The title was, “Are your bags packed? Seems she literally packed her bags after my question. Next day, the phone rang with a job offer.

The trick to effective prayer is developing a level of trust in the prayer process that enables you to move right along in the direction of your dreams. We call that opening our consciousness. Sometimes we need to begin by praying for clarity and to deepen our trust before we can budge those old beliefs.

Once we learn the basics, it’s easy to unerstand why some prayers are more effective than others. Even if we always use the same procedure, our level of belief and acceptance is quite different in different areas of our life. Some people find it easy to believe that prayer works in relationships and difficult in health or creativity. They think health is physical and “real” Or they think only “talented” people can write or sing or paint. Others discover they have layers of negative beliefs around prosperity. The idea that money issues can be resolved by affirmative prayer seems OK to one person and nonsense to another.

It is important to have a daily spiritual practice that includes prayer and reading. Classes are also very important. Your spirit practice deepens your belief in the power of affirmtive prayer and helps you release beliefs that stand in the way of success. The need for a good spiritual practice is always there. Long after you are in total agreement intellectually, you will discover some “emotional” resistance if you are honest.

If you pray for a specific issue and get nowhere for a while, consider working with a New Thought minister, counselor or practitioner. That person can help you sort out your beliefs and help you plan to release them.

If you want to try working alone, here’s one way. List the beliefs that you suspect are standing in your way. Look at what you heard about money or love in your childhood. Some beliefs, like taking your doctor as the ultimate authority or believing it is impossible to prosper in a negative economy are easy to spot. You can begin to pray to release the sabotaging negatives. You can also draw a line through your list of harmful beliefs and write affirmations as replacements.

Perhaps you need to begin by praying to be willing to release the old beliefs. Or pray for a deeper conviction of spiritual law. Don’t be afraid to start at the beginning. Be honest. There is no shame in learning something new. I used to believe I could not lose weight because I could not stay on a consistent food plan. I prayed to lose weight and discovered that I was speaking about my failure often.

I stopped saying, “I can’t”. in conversation. I didn’t talk about my weight but I prayed to lose weight. I knew my prayer was being answered when my intuition told me to work on self love. I kept praying and, one fine day, I stopped binge eating. I also stopped ordering small amounts in public because I wasn’t fooling anyone. This was all a part of my self-love, releasing shame, and self-acceptance plan.

I also began to bless the fat people I saw. I stood nude in front of the mirror and blessed myself and said, “I love you.” One fine day, my intuition kicked in again and I decided since I hated diets, I would eat what I wanted and aim for healthy foods. I kept track and aimed for 1200 calories. If I went over, I made new choices tomorrow.

This is not weight loss advice. This is an example of how prayer helped me with a problem that began in the 7th grade. It was a deep seated issue and it took a long time to see results. I eventually released 110 pounds and I also released a carload of old ideas about self-worth. It took several years and I’ve kept it off for over three years. I’m not thin but I’m out of the doctor’s DANGER box on the chart.

Learning to pray effectively is all about learning to pay attention to what you are thinking and believing and learning to trust that this teaching works. When we get to the place where we can trust enough to thank God in advance and totally believe it, then life it smoother sailing. And, if we use affirmative prayer and pay attention to our prevailing belief system, we can all get there.

4 Comments on “Why Thank God In Advance?”

OMG, Dr. Jane!!! This is – TO ME – the very best, deepest, most important blog I have ever read of yours!!! Please, can you also write on this subject — what if, you are soooo quite satisfied, and actually amazed, at how astoundingly well your life has gone, so far, that you just can’t get your mind around “wanting” more or better — yet — some things are just not really (if you are truly honest with yourself) “perfect?”. Maybe, “I?”, one is so amazed at how wonderful life is that one hesitates to truly ask for, or expect, more. Maybe, “I?”, one is so grateful for all that has already been experienced in life that it is hard to ask for more or different. Yet, it seems, we all always move forward and really, truly, do want more or different or other as life progresses. When do we stop “wanting”. Well – you are 80 now. It doesn’t seem as if you have stopped — and, like the energizer bunny, you keep on going and giving wisdom. Sooo — what is the “key” to never stopping the new expectations and the “treatments” for more and better — even when you thing/believe you have already surpassed your own “wildest imaginations”!!!

Hi Ellen,
I will write about your question one day because it is a good one. Until then – my short answer is that even if you have a voice in your head “Yo should be satisfied with the great blessing you have,” that’s not so. We are living our lives in God which has many names, including Divine Givingness and this Givingess is unlimited good. It is very possible to appreciate our blessings at the same time we are open to more. In fact, that desire is part of your God-given nature.
Love,
Jane